Appearing in "Lifeline"
Featured Characters:
- ⏴ Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) ⏵ (Apparent death)
Supporting Characters:
- ⏴ Shroud ⏵
- ⏴ Tigra ⏵
- ⏴ Werewolf by Night ⏵
- ⏴ Poltergeist ⏵
- ⏴ David Ishima ⏵
- ⏴ Lindsay McCabe ⏵
- ⏴ Magnus ⏵
Antagonists:
- Locksmith ⏵ (First appearance)
- Ticktock ⏵ (First appearance)
- ⏴ Morgan Le Fay ⏵ (Apparent death)
- Morgan's medieval knights
Other Characters:
- Norns (Dream)
- ⏴ Angar the Screamer ⏵
- ⏴ Daddy Longlegs ⏵
- ⏴ Dansen Macabre ⏵
- ⏴ Enforcer ⏵
- ⏴ Flying Tiger ⏵
- ⏴ Gypsy Moth ⏵
- ⏴ Hangman (Harlan Krueger) ⏵
- ⏴ Killer Shrike ⏵
- ⏴ Needle ⏵
- ⏴ Nekra ⏵
- ⏴ Tatterdemalion ⏵
- Viper (Mentioned)
- unspecified President of the United States (in a headline) (Only in flashback)
- Merlin (Mentioned)
- Dazzler (Vision or hallucination)
- Colossus (Vision or hallucination)
- Juggernaut (Vision or hallucination)
- Hawkeye (Vision or hallucination)
- Angel (Vision or hallucination)
- Spider-Man (Vision or hallucination)
- Thor (Vision or hallucination)
- Nick Fury (Vision or hallucination)
- Impossible Man (Vision or hallucination)
- Storm (Vision or hallucination)
- Kingpin (Vision or hallucination)
- Priscilla Dolly (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man (Vision or hallucination)
- Hulk (Vision or hallucination)
- Bova (Vision or hallucination)
- Binary (Vision or hallucination)
- Scotty McDowell (Vision or hallucination)
- Alexander Walsh (Vision or hallucination)
- Modred (Vision or hallucination)
- Wasp (Vision or hallucination)
- Rupert Dockery (Vision or hallucination)
- Jerry Hunt (Vision or hallucination)
- Jared Kurtz (Vision or hallucination)
- as-yet unidentified white-haired elderly woman (Vision or hallucination)
Locations:
Vehicles:
- Locksmith's plane
Synopsis for "Lifeline"
Awoken by a nightmare, Jessica Drew believes that the recent disappearance of super-humans she has encountered has to be part of some larger plan. While running a shower, she also disappears, much to the horror of her friend Lindsay McCabe who had come to check on her. Jessica, now in her Spider-Woman costume, finds herself the prisoner of the Locksmith and his assistant Ticktock. The Locksmith was an escape artist who believed that super-humans had made his amazing feats irrelevant, and so had began targeting super-humans who associated with Spider-Woman, capturing them all after their defeats at her hands and incarcerating them in a specially built prison of his own making. Spider-Woman finds that the Shroud, Tigra, the werewolf Jack Russell, Poltergeist, Angar the Screamer, Daddy Longlegs, Dansen Macabre, Gypsy Moth, Hangman, Killer Shrike, Needle, Nekra, Flying Tiger, Tatterdemalion and Enforcer are all prisoners of the Locksmith.[Continuity 1] [Continuity 2] Tigra and Spider-Woman try to come up with ways to break out of their cells (each one specially designed to contain its particular occupant). When trying to rouse the Shroud fails, Tigra is able to utilize Poltergeist's telekinetic abilities to break Spider-Woman and Gypsy Moth free. Before the Locksmith and Ticktock can gas the room to sedate the escapees, Spider-Woman convinces Gypsy Moth to switch their costumes using her powers.
When the Locksmith thinks he has everything back under control, Spider-Woman breaks out of Gypsy Moth's cell, frees the prisoners she trusts (Shroud, Tigra, Poltergeist, Gypsy Moth, Daddy Longlegs, and Jack Russell) and easily defeats the Locksmith and Ticktock. After waiting for the police to come for Locksmith, Ticktock and the remaining prisoners, Spider-Woman takes the people she freed back to her home to celebrate their freedom with her friends David Ishima and Lindsay McCabe. However, the celebrations take a tragic turn when Spider-Woman is plagued by morbid images, and David tries to break up with Spider-Woman, being unable to deal with her status as a superhero. As David is telling her this, he is possessed by her old friend Magnus, who warns Jessica that Morgan LeFey has orchestrated everything in an attempt at stealing her soul.[Continuity 3]
Spider-Woman then agrees to have her soul sent back to the 6th century to take on Morgan LeFey once and for all. After a battle against Morgan, her forces and various magical illusions and tricks, Spider-Woman manages to best Morgan in combat and knock her out of her castle, causing her body to disintegrate. Returning back to her own time, Jessica tries to re-enter her body when she realizes, to her horror, that it is dead. Realizing that Morgan LeFey still won, Jessica agrees to accompany Magnus to the Spirit Realm. However, before going, Jessica realizes that her friends will never know what happened to her. As such she convinces Magnus to erase all memory of Spider-Woman from the minds of the people she knew so that they don't worry about her. With the task done, Jessica says goodbye to the mortal world and walks off into the Spirit Realm with Magnus.[Continuity 4]
Notes
Continuity Notes[]
- ↑ Flying Tiger, Hangman, Tatterdemalion and Enforcer are not super-humans. Presumably Locksmith discovered this after capturing them, but felt he could not let them go. This is explicitly stated in Hangman's profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #17.
- ↑ Locksmith begins plotting Viper as his next prisoner. The narrative states that she was last seen in Captain America #281.
- ↑ Magnus apologizes for abruptly leaving Jessica as he "had business" to attend to. That happened in Spider-Woman #13; an editor's note in this story misattributes it to Spider-Woman #16.
- ↑ Although this appears to be the end of Spider-Woman, her "death" and the memory wipe done to everyone who met her is ultimately erased during the course of Avengers #238–241. Morgan le Fay also cheats death and appears in those issues as well.
Trivia
- The photo on the cover was taken by Eliot R. Brown in the alley behind Marvel artist Bob Camp's loft in New York. Spider-Woman was played by Marvel secretary Lynn Luckman, with the other models being: Vincent Waller as the Enforcer, Bob Sharen as the Werewolf by Night, Michael Carlin as the Needle, Mark Gruenwald as Tatterdemalion, Belinda Gruenwald (Mark's wife) as the Gypsy Moth, Ann Nocenti as Tigra, Brian Postman as the Hangman, Joe Albelo as the Shroud, John Morelli as Poltergeist, and Bob Harras as the Locksmith, all as credited in Marvel Age #4 (1983). Painted "enhancements" (not needed for Luckman) were provided by Bob Larkin.[1][2] In his 2019 reminiscing of this moment, photographer Brown mistakenly identifies the Hangman as the Grim Reaper (The Grim Reaper did not appear in the story and had not even met Spider-Woman), and considers that the Shroud may have been portrayed by Bob Camp (who provided the background), and the Locksmith, by Ralph Macchio.[3]
See Also
Links and References
References
- ↑ Marvel Age #4 Behind the Lines - Grumblings from the Gru Crew
- ↑ Howe, Sean (28 August 2012) Sean Howe on Tumblr THE UNTOLD STORY. Retrieved on 20 May 2020.
- ↑ Brown, Eliot R. (28 December 2019) Spider-Woman #50: The Most Expensive Comic Ever Made! Part 2 Behind the Universe - the Marvel Comics Bullpen - 1979-1995. Retrieved on 12 December 2024.